It was well before man explored that it was a known fact that the earth was round. The Ancient Greeks had that figured out thousands of years before the first ship hit the water.
Robert Scott led the British Antarctic Expedition (1901-1904) and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913). He and his team sailed to Antarctica on the ship SS Discovery for the first expedition, and on the ship Terra Nova for the second expedition.
Christopher Columbus is often credited with proving that the world is round during his famous voyage in 1492, although the concept of a round Earth was already known in ancient times by scholars like Pythagoras and Aristotle. Columbus's journey, which he thought would lead him to Asia but instead led him to the Americas, helped to further confirm the spherical shape of the Earth.
Scott led a team that aimed to be the first humans to set foot at the South Pole.
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to successfully reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.
Robert Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led an ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in 1910-1912. The expedition, known as the Terra Nova Expedition, aimed to be the first to reach the South Pole, but tragically Scott and his team perished on their return journey. Despite failing to reach the Pole first, Scott's expedition provided valuable scientific data and raised awareness about the harsh conditions of the Antarctic.
Vasco da Gama led the first around-the-world expedition, but NOT to prove that the world was round. That had already been widely known for well over 1,500 years. The ancient Greeks had even very accurately calculated the exact size of planet Earth and they even had worked out (to the exact number of degrees) the slight tilt that the axis of our planet has.
The Chinese admiral, Zheng He, in 1421. Ancient maps produced by his captains appear to have found their way to Portugal and later to Spain.
Magallen
Proved that the stories told by the trappers were indeed factual
The expedition of Bartholomew Dias was financed by Portugal. Dias led the first European expedition to round the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa in 1488.
Ferdinand Magellan
John White led the second expedition to Roanoke Island in 1587, which aimed to establish a permanent English colony in the New World.
The first expedition around the globe was led by Ferdinand Magellan.
Ferdinand Magellan's voyage proved it was possible to sail from Europe to the eastern coast of Asia. He used a route around the southern tip of South America. He was the first to accomplish this voyage.
Ferdinand Magellan was the Portuguese explorer who led a Spanish expedition to circumnavigate the world. The expedition began in 1519 and lasted for four years to 1522 when his crew returned home without Magellan. Magellan died in 1521.
The Englishman who led the expedition to Roanoke was Sir Walter Raleigh.
Hernándo de Magallanes.